On Friday European stocks advanced, with the Stoxx Europe 600 Index extending its third weekly gain, before a report on American payrolls that may show the recovery in the world’s largest economy is intact. U.S. index futures fluctuated and Asian shares fell.

Vodafone Group Plc, the world’s largest mobile-phone operator, climbed 1.9 percent after Goldman Sachs Group Inc. advised buying the shares. Mitchells & Butlers Plc, the Birmingham, England-based pub owner, jumped 4.5 percent after Morgan Stanley recommended the stock.

The benchmark Stoxx 600 rose 0.3 percent to 248.14 at 11:29 a.m. in London, paring gains of as much as 0.6 percent after data showed that German factory orders declined in November. The gauge has advanced 1.5 percent this week as investors turned their attention to better-than-estimated U.S. economic data.

The Stoxx 600 has rallied 15 percent from last year’s lowest level on the 22nd September as U.S. economic data showed the recovery is gathering pace and optimism grew that euro-area policy makers will contain the region’s debt crisis. Markets were closed in Greece, Finland, Sweden and Norway during the day for a holiday.

The U.S. economy probably generated 155,000 jobs in December, compared with 120,000 the previous month, based on estimates before a Labor Department report at 8:30 a.m. Washington time. The unemployment rate rose after dropping in November to the lowest level in more than two years, the report may also show.

Euro-area consumer confidence fell to the lowest in more than two years and unemployment remained at a 13-year high, data released showed.

Asian stocks fell and the regional benchmark index pared weekly gains as higher borrowing costs in a French bond auction stoked concern Europe’s debt crisis is deepening, overshadowing improving economic data in the U.S.